KOGA History

Since 1974 people have had more time for leisure activities, because the working week got shorter. Koga, as a newly-founded cycle manufacturer, took immediate advantage of this trend. Andries Gaastra, former Sales Manager at Batavus, founded Koga B.V. when his father Gerrit sold the Batavus business. He joined the first two letters of his wife’s surname with the first two of his own to form the brand name Koga. 

Gaastra’s aim was to bring an exclusive range of lightweight bikes to market. He built the very first Koga at his own home in Oranjewoud, near Heerenveen. Gaastra quickly decided to specify components only from exclusive suppliers, so as to meet the highest quality expectations. Once Koga had become an importer of Shimano components, a network developed including other Japanese cycle manufacturers. Among them was Miyata, a company which at this time had already been producing cycle frames for 80 years. Until 2010 Koga frames were produced by Miyata, and the suffix Miyata was placed after the brand name Koga.

Koga Miyata brings its first racing bikes to market. Koga is a pioneer in its collaboration with Shimano. 

Koga Road Racer

Koga Miyata starts sponsoring the “IJsboerke” cycle racing team. The photo below dates back to 1980. All of the riders who were then members of the Ijsboerke-Koga-Miyata-Warncke Team rode Fullpro-L or Fullpro bikes with original specification.

Top left: Jos van de Poel, Ludo Delcroix, Marc Demeyer, Ronny Claes, Jos Jacobs, Guido van Sweevelt.

2nd row: Hans van Vliet, Walter Godefroot, Dirk Wayenberg, Pol Verschuere, Ludo Peeters, Rudi Pevenage, Gery Verlinden, Eric van den Wiele, Staf van Roosbroeck, Jos Janssens, Willy de Geest.

3rd row: Andre Dierickx, Ludwig Wijnands, Rudi Colman, Willy de Geest. Front: Uwe Bolten, Daniël Willems, Theo de Rooy.

Koga Miyata no longer built just racing bikes, but widened its range to include touring bikes.

RoadRunner

Left to right: Hans van Vliet, Gerrit van Gestel, Ludo Delcroix, Uwe Bolten, Theo de Rooij, Ludwig Wijnands, Peter Winnen, Rudi Pevenage, Daniël Willems, Eric van de Wiele, Ronny Claes, Guido van Sweevelt, Jos Jacobs, Willy de Geest, Pol Verschuere, Marc Demeyer, Walter Godevroot. 

Peter Winnen wins on a Koga Miyata in the Tour de France stage over L’Alpe d’Huez.

Anecdote – what led up to the 1981 victory:
The winning bike used by Peter Winnen was delivered to L’Alpe d’Huez by Team Capri Sonne only on the morning of the stage. This special, even lighter version of the team bike had in fact only been finalised the day before, and was transported overnight to the Alpe d’Huez stage start personally by Koga assembler Aart Boer. Some of the riders decided on the spot to use this new team bike, and among them was Peter Winnen.

The luxury cycle sector was one of the first to be hit by the economic crisis. Koga Miyata suffered in the difficult business climate and was forced to largely withdraw from cycle team sponsorship. 

The Koga-sponsored American rider Greg Herbold became the first UCI Downhill Champion at the Championship in Durango, Colorado. Herbold rode the Koga Ridgerunner.

Style 2000 ‘Bike of the Year’:
An innovation on this bike was the chaincase, which enclosed all of the sprockets and derailleurs.

Koga started sponsoring the Tulip professional team with Adri van der Poel as team captain. Van der Poel later became many times World Champion in cyclo-cross.

Top left: Rudy Patry, Tom Desmet, Roland Liboton, Adrie Kools, Joe Parkin, Stephan van Leeuwe, Kurt Onclin. Middle: Rudy Rogiers, Olaf Jentzsch, Johan Remels, Jacques van der Poel. Below: Peter Pieters, Adri van der Poel, Ronny van Holen, Allan Peiper, Luc Roosen, Filip van Vooren, Michel Zanoli.

Kneeling: Ludo Voeten (Team Manager), Colin Sturgess, Dietmar Hauer, Johnny Dauwe, Jim van de Laer. In the car: José de Cauwer (Sporting Director).

Koga was sold to Atag Holdings, which until then had owned only a heating business. Gaastra left Koga, and Co Rijcken, who had been with the business since the start, took over the leadership. 

Atag Holdings separated out the heating and cycling businesses, so that profits from each could be more accurately presented. Koga was thus transferred to a new holding company: “Accell”. It was a good move, because Atag posted heavy losses not a year later.

Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel took three Gold medals at the Olympic Games in Sydney (track pursuit, road solo time-trial and road race) and a Silver medal (track points race). Van Moorsel also rode to a new world record in the 3 km solo pursuit.

Sponsorship of the Farmfrites professional race team in the Tour de France and the Olympic Games:

Leontien Zijlaard van Moorsel took her fourth Olympic title (solo road time trial) four years after the Olympic Games in Sydney, as well as a Bronze medal (3 km solo track pursuit).

Theo Bos won Olympic Silver in the sprint. This was the first sprint medal for the Netherlands since 1936.

Whether it’s a trekking, touring or sports bike, with Koga Signature everyone can assemble their own personal Koga bike, anywhere and at anytime. The Cycle Configurator on the website enables you to develop your dream bike step by step. Finally, the bike will be built for you completely by hand. You can also set your own name onto the frame – a signed bicycle made to measure.

Koga opens a new quality and testing centre, where with the help of more than 20 test machines components and frames can be tested.

“That we spend so much time, money and care on testing components and complete bikes has a lot to do with Koga’s idea of quality,” said Managing Director Wouter Jager. “We cannot and would not want to rely on suppliers to report on the quality of their products. We have to test for ourselves to be certain that what is delivered to us meets our standards.”

Marianne Vos wins Olympic Gold in the points race at the Olympic Games in Beijing. Specially for the 2008 Olympic Games Koga developed the unique Kimera track frame for Bos, Vos and the other riders of the Netherlands core squad.

The new workstations were developed by Koga’s assemblers themselves, and comply with the relevant workplace safety regulations. The objective was to make it more comfortable and easier to work. So now, the assemblers have all of the necessary materials clearly sorted and around them within reach, so there’s no more searching. Also new to the workstations is the lift: bikes no longer need to be lifted up manually. Anti-fatigue matting ensures improved walking comfort. Special daylight illumination projects a natural spectrum of light. This keeps the assemblers alert and they get tired more slowly.

Koga returns to the Tour de France with the Skil-Shimano Team: Thierry Hupond, Cyril Lemoine, Jonathan Hivert, Simon Geschke, Fumiyuki Beppu, Piet Rooijakkers, Albert Timmer, Koen de Kort and Kenny van Hummel. Iwan Spekenbrik is Team Manager, and the Team Captains are Rudie Kemna and Merijn Zeeman. 

The brand name is shortened to Koga, because the frames are no longer made by Miyata. Short and snappy, just as it was when the brand was registered in 1974. 

Teun Mulder wins a bronze medal in the Keirin race at the Olympic Games in London.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of KOGA, a limited series of 40pcs. of lightweight road bikes will be built. Each bike will be assembled by a dedicated mechanic, using only premium components. The bike carries a special badge and is individually numbered to ensure exclusivity.

Elis Ligtlee has been very successful since her entry into track cycling in 2011 and was a wholesaler in many national and international titles. Her specialties were the sprint, 500 meter time trial and the keirin. At the Olympic Games in 2016 she surprised friend and foe by winning Olympic gold in her part of the keirin.

Matthijs Büchli took silver in the keirin competition. The Dutchman finished after a great final sprint just behind the towering top favourite Jason Kenny. It was preceded by a bizarre scene. The keirinfinale started hectic. For a moment it seemed that one or two riders were kicked out of the final after passing the pace-setter too early, but the jury didn't dare to make a decision and opted for a restart with all the riders in the track. The second start was also shot down, as there was again the appearance of a too early passage of the derny. Again no decision was made.

The Scottish adventurer Mark Beaumont explored his physical and mental limits more than ever before during his last adventure. On the 2nd of July he left for his ultimate challenge to break the current record of 123 days by no less than 43 days. Mission accomplished: on 18 September, after 79 days, he finished again in Paris. KOGA and Mark have been linked for years. All his great adventures and records he has ridden on a KOGA. We are proud that Mark has chosen Koga and that he has been the most impressive performer on a Koga for 10 years....

The KNWU, in cooperation with KOGA, TU Delft, Actiflow and Pontis Engineering, has worked hard on a new track bike. This track bike has more than proven itself, because several medals have already been won on this bike. The new name of the track bike has been created in a playful way. By letting KOGA fans come up with a new name for the track bike, they had a chance to win a complete trip to the Olympic Games of Tokyo. Out of more than 1,700 entries, a final choice was made. The proud Patrick De Roo came through an anagram of Geesink (who had won in 1964) to the name KOGA KINSEI. Freely translated that means: made for gold.

The Fire Manager of KOGA, Harald Troost, was one of the jury members who had the difficult choice to come to a good decision. In the end KOGA Kinsei was chosen because it sounds very good and the Japanese name has a very clear connection with Tokyo, where the Olympic Games will take place. Now it is up to the Dutch track cyclists to go for gold again!

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator

During the European Championship track cycling in Apeldoorn the riders were allowed to ride their first race on the new KOGA KINSEI track bike. The excitement was obvious when Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen both competed against each other on their new KOGA KINSEI in the final of the 'sprint' part of the race. Jeffrey went home with a gold medal and the title European Champion and Harry with the silver medal. Not only is the strength of the men proven, the strength of the KINSEI is also proven. And that while thousands of fans were allowed to enjoy it.

Because of Corona it was a long wait, but the Olympic Games were finally coming. The riders did everything they could to leave for Tokyo as fit as possible. On the latest track bike, the KOGA KINSEI, they had one goal in mind: to go for gold. And it worked.

In the team sprint it was the perfect opportunity to achieve that goal. Jeffrey Hoogland, Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Matthijs Büchli were victorious and took gold after a game against Great Britain.

Not only the men could be proud, because on the Keirin Shanne Braspannicx triumphed in a fabulous way and sprinted to the gold medal. In the men's eyes, the eyes were on Harrie Lavreysen, but thanks to a smart move by the British, Harrie won a bronze medal.

And then the sprint… it was exactly how a final should be. Harry to Jeffrey. It's about ultimate strength, tactics and using the right moments. A perfect interplay between the physical and mental condition of the two extremely strong men. After Jeffrey's first victory, Harrie managed to be a fraction faster, which was rewarded with a gold medal. Jeffrey went home with silver. It was a fantastic final that we will not soon forget.